White River Electric Association

Headquarters: Meeker, Colorado

“How do you know what’s behind the resume? These [leadership] assessments reveal the layers of a person, which is important to understand.” – Trina Zagar-Brown

The Need

White River Electric Association (WREA) plays a major role in the lives of its members. As the provider of electric service to Eastern Rio Blanco County in Colorado, this consumer-owned, non-profit cooperative is focused not only on delivering electricity, but doing so with strong customer service and a commitment to the community, all at reasonable rates.

To meet such demands, a well-developed and attuned staff is at the core of the association’s success. So, when the position of General Manager/CEO required a search to fill, the Board of Directors knew it needed a powerful tool that would assist them in making the right decision the first time.

The Customized Solution

A member of WREA’s executive management team received a referral for the candidate assessment services offered by Success Performance Solutions right around the time the team’s search was beginning. “The challenge for us,” says WREA’s General Counsel, Trina Zagar-Brown, “was trying to fill a known gap in the hiring process: How do you know what’s behind a piece of paper? How do you see what’s behind the resume and get into the actual layers of a person? This is necessary to grasp and understand in order to make the right hiring decision.”

WREA found the solution to its need with the use of four different leadership assessments, including:

ASSESS—Measures personality and competency fit

Prevue Learning & Reasoning—Measures general mental abilities

Business Values and Motivators—Measures what motivates an individual (good for cultural fit too)

CriteriaOne DISC—Measures how people approach tasks and other people, which is good for communication style and team fit

Using this combination, which has aptly been coined the “whole person approach,” offers WREA an advantage hard to come by with other consultants—a more in-depth analysis. Sing multiple complementary assessments provides human resource and executive managers with greater assurance that their candidate choice is valid and reliable, and more importantly—correct.

The Added Bonus

According to Zagar-Brown, the added bonus in working with Ira Wolfe, founder of Success Performance Solutions, has been the attentiveness they’ve received throughout the process. “Ira was personally very attentive,” she says. “He listened to our goals, made the expectations very clear, and was extremely responsive. We have consistently received efficient, high-quality customer service and would highly recommend the company and its products and services.”